Chapter 23: Must Push Hard!
He watched from afar as Natsume Mio got on the bus.
Sakamoto Ken understood her.
Staring like this from a distance would definitely make all sorts of wild thoughts pop into her head.
Then her inner self would automatically start seeking explanations, like how today’s outfit had completely captivated him, to the point where he couldn’t tear his eyes away.
The highest realm of strategy is making the other person strategize themselves—that was the experience Sakamoto Ken had summed up after going through the entire previous life.
Coming out from behind the cash register, Sakamoto Ken stood in front of the magazine rack.
On evenings with few customers, Sakamoto Ken would also pick up recent magazines to read.
By calculation, it had only been two weeks since returning to 2015, and many things in his memory hadn’t fully aligned with the present timeline yet.
For example, Abe-san’s mind hadn’t opened up yet, Trump-san’s ear hole across the ocean hadn’t been pierced yet, and the number one male gunner in the Japanese server was still job hunting everywhere, struggling for a livelihood.
Do you get the sensation of seeing someone you remember as already hanging on the wall, alive and appearing in news reports…
But on second thought, he himself had only been reborn after death.
The field he paid more attention to, 《My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected.》 had taken first place in the 《This Light Novel is Amazing!》 selection a few months ago—this was just the first time, and Teacher Wataru would continue to dominate the top spot for the next two years.
Probably starting from this year, the emergence of excellent works in the light novel and manga fields began to decrease, and the trend toward toilet paper became obvious.
Even some hugely popular works had mediocre original quality, only blowing up thanks to excellent animation adaptation production.
Sakamoto Ken thought Tatsuki Fujimoto was an exception.
His works were a bit crazy, but in this era full of formulaic toilet paper everywhere, they were absolutely a breath of fresh air.
……
Kaji Keiko put down the manuscript in her hand.
Although it was the weekend today, she hadn’t rested.
When getting off work on Friday, she had taken home some new work manuscripts she was responsible for, to review them over the weekend.
By Monday, there would definitely be new manuscripts to look at.
At the last weekly meeting, she had already felt the pressure of her performance.
Among the works she was handling, none could make it onto the JUMP main magazine, and even on the JUMP+ online platform, they were all performing averagely.
Although she wouldn’t get fired, seeing her colleagues connected to famous writers serializing in JUMP, she was envious.
Digging out works capable of standing on their own from new submissions isn’t easy—many people don’t understand manga editor work; actually, she could describe her job as… panning for gold in shit.
As the magazine with the highest fame, and just having opened the WEB channel, the manuscripts received by the JUMP editorial department could be described as piling up like mountains.
But the vast majority were garbage that no one would want even if given for free.
In the recent weeks, the only one with passable quality was that 《Chainsaw Man》.
Speaking of which, how had Chainsaw Man’s serialization performance been these past few days?
Thinking of this, Kaji Keiko opened her computer and went to the JUMP+ webpage.
She had already uploaded the first 4 chapters in the backend, but only 2 had been updated so far.
Over the week, she had been too busy with reviewing manuscripts and hadn’t checked the manga’s situation on the webpage.
Clicking in now, she found the latest chapter’s comment section actually had over four hundred posts.
Seeing that number, she was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly refreshed the page to confirm she wasn’t seeing wrong.
You know, for popular works that had been serializing on WEB for a long time, the comment section usually only had a few hundred posts.
But Kaji Keiko also knew some authors would post themselves to brush the screen; the comment section was anonymous, so readers couldn’t tell if it was the author brushing.
But looking closely, the posts in the comment section felt pretty real—readers complaining from all sorts of angles, with different tones in the posts.
She casually checked the comments for a manga serializing at the same time, that originally unknown 《Young Lady, Sniper Rifle, and Pantyhose!》.
She had already read the content; this time it was checking the comment section.
Just opening the comment section, she immediately saw several weirdly off comments.
For example…
「So good, author keep it up! I’ll keep following!」
「Best manga I’ve read this year, author’s art is super praise-worthy, everyone go read it!」
There wasn’t much discussion about the plot; there were plenty of generic praises.
Normal readers, even if praising, would at most post two words 「good」, they wouldn’t awkwardly hype like this.
Next week, she had to ask the chief editor about the situation with this manga.
She planned to strongly push 《Chainsaw Man》 onto JUMP main magazine serialization; if it got robbed of the spot by this one, she wouldn’t be convinced.
At bedtime, Kaji Keiko habitually checked her email.
Sakamoto Ken: 「《Chainsaw Man》 manuscript chapters 5-7, see attachment.」
Seeing this email title, she immediately clicked in.
The attachment really had full scans of three whole chapters; Kaji Keiko was dazed, somewhat suspecting if she had unknowingly skipped several weeks.
This Sakamoto Ken sensei had come with full four chapters on submission day.
Just one week later, another three chapters.
And he had even said at the time that he was creating it all by himself, without even hiring assistants.
This speed, is it even human?!
Kaji Keiko skipped sleep entirely and started reading the manuscript.
This planned content focused on shaping the Power character, but the male lead still maintained his usual belief—breasts.
「I really want to grope breasts.」
This line basically became Denji’s greatest motivation, and then he fought for this ideal.
Then, the female lead seemed to become two.
Male lead Denji started from obsessing over Makima’s breasts, and now also obsessed over Power’s breasts…
This guy, does he like any breasts?
So, actually, Sakamoto Ken sensei was creating a harem manga?
Continuing to flip through, during the fight against the Bat Demon, Power’s character design also took shape.
Hot-blooded with some unseriousness, even feeling a bit mentally unstable…
But that’s exactly the flavor!
The market is now full of formulaic campus romance and otherworld toilet paper; Chainsaw Man can definitely catch people’s eyes!
Reading from chapter 1 to 7 again, a full volume’s length, with no drop in quality at all.
The most amazing part was Sakamoto Ken sensei’s creation speed.
Three chapters a week!
Each chapter has 20 pages, three chapters totaling 60 pages.
Nearly 9 pages of finished manuscript per day!
Conception, design, drawing… how did he achieve this speed?
She had seen writers who created non-stop except for eating and sleeping, even sleeping only a few hours, but even they, during their most desperate deadline rushes, completing two chapters a week would burn them out completely.
No wonder Sakamoto Ken sensei said weekly two chapters was no pressure at all.
The screen illustration stopped at the last page of chapter 7, with Denji resisting in desperation; the next chapter would surely start the comeback.
Seeing this, Kaji Keiko felt herself getting hot-blooded too.
Strongly push!
Must strongly push!
Tomorrow was Monday; at the regular meeting, she had to strongly push this work to the entire JUMP editorial department!
No matter what background that 《Young Lady》 had, she had to fight for a main magazine serialization chance for Sakamoto Ken sensei.
Even more than the 《Chainsaw Man》 manga itself, Sakamoto Ken this writer brought her greater shock.
With this quality, this speed, he would definitely bring her more surprises.
Must firmly hold onto this writer!
Even betting her entire career, she had to make sure this work gets seen by the readers!!!
